News
by colorful swirls
Summary: Rose and Scorpius have important news to tell their parents. / Featuring dinner with the Weasleys, a visit from the Malfoys, and an argument, as expected.


**disclaimer: **I do not own Harry Potter.

**written for: **If You Dare, Weasley Family Bootcamp, Favorite Era Bootcamp, Quidditch League Competition, Round 1 - Appleby Arrows, Seeker.

* * *

...

"Oh, come on, Ron! Stop acting like a child!" Hermione's hands are on her hips as she stands beside the dining room table of the Weasley household (well, Weasley household number five).

"Please, Daddy," Rose adds, her voice pleading and innocent and sweet. If he hadn't seen it with his own eyes a mere two hours before, he wouldn't have believed that this little sixteen-year-old had the nerve to behind her parent's backs and date that boy.

Ron sighs. "_If_ you promise not to marry until you turn twenty-five."

"Of course!"

"And you break up with him."

"Daddy!"

Ron sighs, again.

...

Astoria narrows her eyes at her husband of nearly thirty years. "Draco, the girl makes Scorpius happy."

"It's not Rose I'm worried about - it's her family." His white-blonde hair has receded enough for anyone to tell that Draco is a grown man, quite grown; but yet, here he is, acting like a child.

"The Weasleys are nice enough," she reasons. "They're all smart - "

Her husband's snort cuts Astoria off.

"Just behave, or you'll be the one grounded," his wife threatens darkly. She smiles slightly at his sudden silence, and then she takes his hand and Disapparates.

...

Ron and Hermione have one dining room table - a smooth, wooden one, that could seat four people. This proves to be a problem.

When Harry and Ginny and their kids came over to have dinner, it's a matter of laughing and jokingly deciding who would to have to pull up chairs and bins to sit on. The normal answer would be to conjure a chair, but Hermione and Ginny enjoyed watching their husbands squat on whatever item the children managed to find from around the house, they didn't bother.

With the Malfoys arriving, though, Hermione makes sure to magic three extra chairs into existence. "Are you sure Gemma isn't coming?" she asks her daughter worriedly, several times.

"She has a date, Mum," Rose answers, each time. "She can't." This strikes her mother as strange; the way Rose keeps talking about her and Scorpius's news, it's very important - wouldn't Draco and Astoria make sure their daughter is coming?

Hermione doesn't say anything, though.

...

Rose grins as the two appear in her front yard, Mr. Malfoy looking stern, as usual, Mrs. Malfoy smiling. "They're here," she calls, hurrying to the door and swinging it open.

"How are you, Mr. Malfoy, Mrs. Malfoy?" Her fiery hair spills onto the front of her navy blue dress - the exact color of her eyes, a combination of her father's light and her mother's dark irises.

"Well, thank you, Rose." Scorpius's father walks up the brick steps stiffly and disappears into the house. His wife says, "Fine, darling," and smiles before following her husband. Rose closes the door behind them and takes a seat on the porch, on the white swing that she'd loved since childhood.

Scorpius should be arriving soon, and she is determined to be the first thing he sees when he gets there.

...

Inside, things are going surprisingly well, although the two men are strangely quiet.

"Gr - Hermione," Draco had greeted. "Ron." That was all he'd said since coming into the dining room, similar to Ron.

Meanwhile, their wives are chatting, discussing their children joyfully, Hugo is sitting in his chair, staring into space, looking immensely bored, and Rose is throwing her arms around her boyfriend, who has just Apparated to the Weasleys' yard.

...

"Are you sure we should tell them?"

"They're going to find out anyway - we might as well get it over with."

"Yes, but - my dad is going to go ballistic, Rose!"

"Mine, too. Imagine if we waited until the day of to tell them, though. Then they'd _really_ go berserk."

"You're right, I suppose. My dad would _die_ if we waited until then to tell them."

"My dad would kill your dad, and then die."

Scorpius laughs and tugs on her hand. "Come on, Rose. Let's get this over with."

...

Dinner is enjoyable, if slightly tense. The only sounds are Hugo's frequent sighs, Hermione and Astoria's conversation, and the occasional brush of Rose and Scorpius touching hands under the table. After dessert is when things get to be less peaceful.

"What's the big news, Rose, Scorpius?" Hermione asks crisply as she picks up plates, muttering for her son to help.

"Well," Rose says, faltering. "It's, um - it's sort of big thing."

Astoria raises an eyebrow. "Oh, really?"

"Really?" Ron repeats, glaring at his former school nemesis suddenly. "Big news, you say?"

"Yes, sir," Scorpius answers, twitching a bit. "It's important."

"If it's so important, why didn't Gemma come?" Hermione questions, looking at Astoria.

"She had a date," Draco says simply.

Mrs. Weasley sighs. "Yes, but I meant - "

"That's not the point, Mum," Rose interrupts. "The point is, me and Scorpius are - "

"Getting married," her newly revealed fiancée finishes.

Silence.

"_What?_"

...

"This is all my fault," Ron cries, his head in his hand. "If I hadn't told you to stay away from him, Rosie - "

"Oh," Draco cuts in icily. "So this travesty is your fault?"

"Well, partly," Ron amends. "I'd say the part half of the blame falls on you."

"Me?"

"Yes, you! If you had raised your son with the proper Malfoy values, he'd have known to stay away from us Weasleys!"

"Actually, I wanted to do that, but Astoria felt he should be more open-minded about things - "

"Then it's _her_ fault!"

"Don't blame my wife! It's your fault anyway - if you had raised your daughter with proper Weasley values, your daughter would've stayed far away from us. We certainly don't want anything to do with her, or you!"

"I tried, but she doesn't listen!"

"Dad, I'm right here - "

"Stay out of this!"

"Don't talk to my daughter that way!"

"She'll be my daughter, too, soon." Draco chuckles bitterly.

"Not if you tell your son to keep his hands off my Rosie, she won't."

"I'm sorry, Weasley, but my son listens to me about as much as your daughter does to you."

"Damn it."

"Ronald!"

...

**a/n:** um. sorry if you thought the ending was awkward; i just thought that was a nice place to end at. anyway, please don't favorite/alert without reviewing!


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